Bookworm Book Review: The Scarlet Letter

Hello! It's me again.

And I've got another book checked off my list!

I actually finished this book several weeks ago, but the story and meaning are still fully fresh in my mind, and, honestly, I don't think I'll ever forget the things I pulled from this one.

Tonight's book of discussion: The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And get ready... this is a long one :)

Before reading this story, the only thing I knew about this book was that "the scarlet letter" was the letter A. That's it. I didn't know what is stood for, nor did I have the faintest idea of what this book was about. I never read it as part of my high school English class, but I was excited to finally get to this classic. 

In order to understand the lessons and takeaways from this book, you need to first understand a little bit of the story. I will try to not give away too much. 

Summary

The story is set in seventeenth-century Massachusetts in a Puritan community. Hester Prynne is punished for her sinful act of committing adultery, which resulted in her having a baby girl named Pearl. As Hester's punishment, she is imprisoned and, once released, must spend the rest of her days wearing a scarlet A on her clothes over her heart, thus labeling her as an adulterer for the rest of her life. As Hester begins her new life as an alienated woman, her husband appears, whom she thought to be lost at sea. Seeing the outward symbol of his wife's sin, her husband, who goes by the name of Roger Chillingworth, seeks his revenge on her and her lover. Hester refuses to give up the name of her daughter's father, even though it would ease her sentence. As a result, her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, must spend the next seven years secretly confronting his secret within himself. 

History

I won't go into more detail or explain the end, but I want to give a little history on Puritan beliefs and lifestyle. Puritans were very strict in their beliefs, and their laws actually tended to favor the men. In most cases, if a woman was charged of adultery, she would be whipped, imprisoned, and/or fined. On occasion, she would actually have to wear a scarlet letter on her clothes for the rest of her life. Not only was the woman physically beaten and financially deprived, but she was also emotionally tormented because the entirety of her punishment was in the eye of the public. The Puritans used to punish people in public as a way to "remind" the rest of the community what happens when you go against the law. 

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As I read The Scarlet Letter, I couldn't help but wonder why is that a person should be publicly humiliated, disgraced, and cast out for one sin over another? Do we not all sin, just in different ways? 

I thought it interesting how the Puritan leaders felt it appropriate to alienate Hester for her sin when they and everyone else around them were probably sinning in other ways, such as pridefulness, idleness, coveting, and maybe even impure thoughts or desires. (The only difference is that they hadn't acted on those impure desires -- or hadn't been caught -- like Hester.) While I do believe that adultery is a major sin, I do not believe that it should be pointed out and displayed for all to see simply because someone succumbed to a different temptation than you did. 

As I pondered on these thoughts, I realized that I need to make sure that I'm not acting like a Puritan when I learn of someone's mistakes or sins. I have different weaknesses than others, and as such, the adversary will send different temptations my way simply because he knows that I have a greater chance of falling for something I already have a weakness for than something I already strongly refuse. The same goes for everyone else. Should I ever learn of someone else's mistakes, I should not think of them as the Puritans thought of Hester: a filthy, unwanted person. 

No matter who we are or how we sin, our worth as individuals and children of God does not diminish, and that worth should also not diminish in the way we see others. 

Along the same lines as that thought, part of Hester's punishment was wearing the scarlet A over her heart for the remainder of her days. As a result, Hester has a constant reminder of that one weak moment. Not only that, but she is constantly reminded of the guilt and shame that was associated with her "crime", as well as the feeling that she never belonged around the rest of the townsfolk. Her daughter, Pearl, only recognizes her mother with the scarlet letter, and she associates it as part of who her mother is. Even if Hester had repented of her sin, she would still have to wear her scarlet A. Would that not make it feel as if there was no hope of relief, no hope of removing the burden that sin puts on your shoulders? That's what it did for Hester. 

Now, Hester's crime involved another party, whom she refuses to give up. As a result, Arthur Dimmesdale must spend the next seven years pretending to be the person everyone thinks he is while he battles the inner knowledge and guilt of knowing what he's done and how that would change the way others see him. In fact, he says, "I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!" 

Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what it feels like to be Hester or Arthur? I don't have to think about it much to know that I don't have to imagine; I know what that feels like. We all do. My situation has never been exactly like that of Hester and Arthur, but I do know what it's like to sin, to do something you know is wrong and have that guilt almost branded into your heart like the scarlet letter was branded into Hester's clothes. I know what's it's like to walk around and know that what you seem to others is different than what you are inside (or at least what you think you are). Even though our sins aren't public like they are in The Scarlet Letter, they're public to us, and it can seem like everyone around us knows what we did and decides to walk on the other side of the street to prevent your 'sin from rubbing off on them'. 

The Scarlet Letter puts all of these feelings into a story that we can relate to because we've all been there in some form or another. We've all been Hester Prynne. We've all been Arthur Dimmesdale. But, in the end, we can overcome it, just like they both did, by willfully acknowledging our wrongs. We can accept that, yes, we messed up, but that doesn't define who we are. Instead, we take those situations and use them to repent, to change, and to become better. 

Sorry, one final thought. 

We cannot forget about Roger Chillingworth. His name is so appropriate for his role. When Roger first comes into the Puritan community and sees Hester there with the scarlet letter upon her chest and an infant in her arms, he knows what happened, and he instantly plots his revenge. In the story, Roger can be seen as a parallel to the devil. He slyly makes his way into Arthur's life ...and Arthur can feel that something is off about him. Posing as a medic, Roger acts like he is helping Arthur when he is rather doing all that he can to prolong Arthur's suffering and prevent him from admitting his wrongdoing. 

That's exactly what the adversary does. He knows exactly who we are and what we've done, and he's going to do everything in his power to make our guilt fester to the point where we feel that if we were to face our wrongs and repent, we would die from shame. But that's so not true! As one of my fellow Young Women's leaders would put it: that's one of Satan's BFLs (big, fat lies)! 

(note: spoiler alert coming!)

Just as Arthur found relief when we finally admitted what he had done, Roger had no control over him any more. Arthur's burden was lifted. The same is for us...except we don't have to wait seven years like Arthur did. We can find relief immediately, should we choose to do so. As this story shows, it's better to own up to our mistakes sooner rather than later, instead of giving them the chance to wear us down and tear us up from the inside out. 

That may all sound a little dramatic, but trust me, if you've been in a position like Hester or Arthur, you know that those feelings are no exaggeration. But there's always hope.  

Anyways, those are my two cents --or rather, 25 cents with how long that turned out to be-- about The Scarlet Letter. It really is a great book, and it's definitely one that will get you thinking.